Chapter 1069: Nemesis |
The Hidden Sage felt He must respond, but He couldn't decide which plan to choose.
Should He quickly repel the invading enemy, or destroy this unknown realm of His creation to create chaos, escape detection, and hide once again?
He had never hesitated like this before, unable to make a decision, as if affected by some Beyonder power.
Then, He heard the 'clang' of a bell.
It seemed to come from ancient times, crossing vast ages.
A weathered, mottled clock's phantom appeared, and a black-gloved left hand held the hands of the clock that had been ticking between gray-white and blue-black.
In this moment of stillness, The Fool raised his right palm, thrusting forward his firmly gripped cane.
The cane, inlaid with countless stardust, caused the void to collapse layer by layer where it passed, surging toward the Hidden Sage.
…
Just then, in the high skies of daylight, the crimson moon suddenly became prominent.
It grew brighter and rounder, its color deepening until it seemed stained with fresh blood.
The Blood Moon descended.
The Blood Moon's crimson light shone upon the invisible barrier in the astral world, illuminating all the distorted concepts here, preventing any deity from escaping, and making that hazy clear light afraid to fall to its intended destination.
…
On the wilderness, Torriope, who was rushing toward the misty, hazy place in the form of an information flood, suddenly discovered that the remaining few dozen meters had become winding and tortuous, twisting back and forth, as if one had to navigate a maze to reach the destination.
Outside the maze lay ethereal darkness filled with brilliant stars, without any paths. Once entered, one would likely become lost immediately, unable to find an exit, let alone reach the intended destination.
This was the control over journey and space wielded by High-Sequence Beyonders of the Door pathway.
Though there must be a door and a destination, They could set the exit at the farthest point and turn the journey between into a maze that couldn't be quickly traversed.
This was also a kind of seal, a seal with time constraints.
After restricting Torriope's movement, Madam Magician, floating in mid-air wearing her silver-starred black robe, suddenly split into nine.
Behind each figure, differently colored planets hazily appeared.
A terrifying, immense gravitational force emanated from these nine figures, instantly tearing apart the maze that had trapped Torriope, seeming to slow the flow of time itself, causing the light in this area to flow toward different ethereal planets, unable to shine along its intended path.
Torriope, who had just reformed His body and planned to immediately release multiple spells using previously added information to force back the enemy again, felt nine invisible hands grab different parts of His body—His head, neck, left ribs, right leg, and other places—pulling madly outward.
He was about to be dismembered.
He had no choice but to informatize again, becoming an ethereal, transparent, complex flood.
This information flood was also being torn apart, pulled outward stream by stream, but the main structure remained undamaged.
When Lumian teleported into this wilderness, he saw the scene of nine Madam Magicians surrounding an area ravaged by a space-time storm.
All nine figures were flickering, constantly switching between false and real at a speed that made them indistinguishable from each other.
Seeing this, Lumian unhesitatingly took out the phone manufactured by the God of Steam and Machinery and tossed it into the air.
The nine figures suddenly merged into one, no longer flickering.
Madam Magician's fixed position was exactly where Lumian had thrown the phone.
She caught the phone with one hand and skillfully opened the corresponding mini-program.
At this moment, from within the space-time storm being torn apart, from that danger-filled dark area, streams of ethereal, transparent information surged forth, reforming into Torriope's figure.
He was only wounded; the overall structure of His information flow hadn't collapsed or been compressed under the terrifying gravitational force.
Compared to before, Torriope seemed slightly shorter, the fierce wolf's head that should have been on His right chest had moved to near His neck, both hands appeared at His navel, and His legs were of uneven length.
These were all caused by information misalignment, but the overall balance remained.
Madam Magician's figure vanished again from mid-air, and seeing this, Lumian quietly retreated from the edge of the wilderness.
Having achieved his wish, Torriope immediately transformed into a complex, transparent information flood, rushing toward the collapsed pit just dozens of meters away, toward that misty, hazy place.
In an instant, He again saw the 'path' become twisted, full of misleading directions.
He was trapped in the 'maze' again.
Madam Magician had returned once again!
Just then, Torriope's information flood within the 'maze' instantly dispersed, quickly vanishing.
This was False Information—False Information that Torriope had specially prepared for the enemy!
Meanwhile, His concealed true information had quietly reached the entrance of the secret passage, still rushing toward that haziness in the form of an ethereal, transparent flood.
Madam Magician, wearing her silver-starred black robe, suddenly Blinked to the edge of the exit, Blinking right in front of Torriope.
Torriope had anticipated this, and His information flood immediately dispersed into multiple intertwining streams, preparing to bypass the enemy from above her head, both sides, and below her feet to enter the exit.
During this process, even if some parts were intercepted, as long as the overall structure and balance remained, Torriope wouldn't die. At worst, He would be missing limbs and some spells after reforming, which could be researched and added back later.
Seeing the streams of transparent information about to scatter and escape, Madam Magician raised the phone in her palm and pressed the activation button for the Information Shredder.
The previously lit phone screen suddenly grew dark, as if all light had been absorbed into the running mini-program.
This emitted an overwhelming, terrifying gravitational force, specifically targeting information.
The streams of information Torriope had broken into uncontrollably changed their destination, rushing toward the dark phone screen.
Madam Magician's face and back of her hands also showed signs of writhing flesh.
Essentially, these were also a form of information, as were the surrounding wilderness and the haziness behind.
However, they existed in a very stable physical form, effectively resisting the overwhelming gravitational force emanating from within the phone screen.
As stream after stream of information entered Madam Magician's phone, a scream suddenly erupted from the depths of the dark screen.
The scream was extremely panicked, extremely terrified, as if encountering a nemesis, encountering the most terrifying thing in the world!
The scream was also information.
The scream abruptly ceased.
After all of Torriope's dispersed information had entered the Information Shredder, the phone screen quickly regained its brightness, and one after another, 'crystals' formed from seemingly transparent information were spat out, like a monster spitting out bones after devouring humans.
This was the Beyonder characteristic of a Sequence 2 Sage of the Mystery Pryer pathway.
An Angel had perished.
Seeing all the 'crystals' had been spat out, Madam Magician threw the phone back to Lumian, who had re-entered the wilderness.
'Hurry,' she urged, then disappeared from her spot.
She planned to Teleport back, change her robe, then return to help.
This would only take a second or two, as she wore two layers of robes and only needed to remove the outer one.
Lumian caught the phone imbued with the God of Steam and Machinery's divine power and latest research results, and immediately activated the Teleport mark on his right shoulder.
His destination was deep in the wilderness, at the entrance to the secret passage filled with haziness.
…
In the library with its messy shelves but numerous books.
Ohayes, another of the Ten Pillars guarding Avalon, had just come from where the mystical items were sealed.
He held a mask that seemed forged from black gold.
The mask was asymmetrical from left to right, and not even in a regular pattern of one side being smaller than the other, but rather chaotic:
The left eye socket was large and hollow, the right small, the left nasal bridge collapsed, the right prominent, the left cheekbone protruding, the right drooping downward, the whole giving an indescribable sense of madness and majesty.
This was one of the three Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts currently possessed by the Moses Ascetic Order, obtained during the chaos of the War of Four Emperors and named Solomon's Mask.
Ohayes had chosen it from among the remaining two Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts, preparing to go support Vice Chairman Retia or his peer, Seids.
Unfortunately, there were only three demigods currently guarding Avalon—the three of them plus Chairman Torriope—and they couldn't even find another Saint to use the last Grade 0 Sealed Artifact.
The negative effects of that Sealed Artifact were too lethal for any Beyonder without godhood to bear.
I can only hope the Chairman or Vice Chairman can return to take the Post-Apocalyptic Scripture, then either repel the invaders or lead everyone in escape… Ohayes looked back at the sealed location, praying that the mid-sequence warlocks in the dark side would find their way here.
With Solomon's Mask, he could no longer use those Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts!
And if these Sealed Artifacts couldn't be put to use, the Moses Ascetic Order's chances of victory would decrease further, and if they had to retreat later, they would have to abandon them, suffering heavy losses.
At this crucial moment, regardless of whether one was Sequence 5 or not, those who could use Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts should quickly take control of them, making them easier to take away!
Glancing at the asymmetrical black gold mask, Ohayes gritted his teeth and put it on his face.
The black gold mask suddenly writhed, as if trying to merge with his flesh.
Ohayes let out a muffled groan of pain, his entire body instantly growing much larger.
At this moment, a figure reflected in his eyes.
That figure was barefoot, wearing a simple robe, with a tree bark belt tied around the waist, black hair gently swaying behind.
***
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